[NU Sports] From the NYT -- News Alert: Notre Dame Hires BrianKelly as New Coach

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> As I read more about the circumstances of Kelly's hire and
> departure from Cincy, I am saddened and angry at the way
> this played out.  And this is coming from someone who

NU alum Stewart Mandel had an interesting article the other week on SI.com about the "what ifs" about that championship weekend two years ago. If West Virginia isn't upset by Pitt and RichRod goes to the title game instead of Les Miles, who knows if Miles would have been more open to Michigan's overtures and RichRod might still be in Morgantown.

This may be similar (except Notre Dame wouldn't have even gotten a callback from Mack Brown :) ) ... one second more and Kelly probably stays at Cincy.

But total agreement about the lowball way of doing this and how devastating it must be for Cincy as they get ready for the Mighty Gators. I also would never expect such from Fitz. I think he (and thankfully our president and AD) envision Coach Fitz as our JoePa and hope to see him on the sidelines for a long time.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

PS - Sorry, Jim, about the "Big Least" ... old habits die hard. Though I would disagree on conference assessment -- it's been a few years now that ABC has been trying to hype up the Big East as a legit league (they took a brief break last year to pump up the Big XII but gave up on that this year). Not buying it. Cincy should have lost to Illinois. Pitt lost to NC State. And West Virginia is about to be crushed by a 6-6 ACC team. Rutgers and Louisville are hot and cold, UConn may be rising, but it's a slow burn. And South Florida is their Minnesota ... don't go for that football, Charlie Brown! So I'll try and keep from doing it, but sometimes the fingers type from the heart.:)

As for Syracuse, that's our usual September letdown game ... when Duke and Wake Forest beat us, it didn't make the ACC better.:)

I'd rather see ABC start to play up the leagues that are truly strong and deep ... and the ones that butter their bread, like the Big Ten and Pac 10.